Custom software development is an integral part of today’s IT industry, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. As more and more businesses discover the benefits of web applications, software and mobile applications designed specifically for them, taking into account all the peculiarities of the way they work, the demand for high-quality custom software is growing because it is good. However, the landscape of the industry is changing and today is not what it was ten years ago, so let’s take a look at what those changes are and what is likely to happen in the near future.
1. Public cloud
The public cloud is the core engine for most software-as-a-service business models. The company hosts its software in the public cloud, making it theoretically available to anyone. Sometimes these services are provided for free, sometimes on a pay-as-you-go model. It’s a win-win: customers get quick and easy access to the software wherever they are, they don’t have to worry about installing it on all their devices and updates, and the vendor gets an easy-to-manage distribution model. Even products that originated in the past, such as Photoshop, seem to be gradually moving in this direction, and this trend is likely to continue.
2. Mobile
The mobile revolution is not so revolutionary anymore – the number of people who regularly browse the Internet or use software products with their smartphones and other mobile devices exceeded the number of PC users a few years ago. However, not all software development companies have been able to evolve and adapt accordingly, while others have been able to quickly move on and capture more market share. Living up to its name, iTransition has been able to quickly adapt to the new environment and today is one of the top firms to turn to when needing a dedicated mobile solution.
3. Agile development
The agile development approach has been around for a while, and those who use it continue to show amazing results. We’re seeing it roll out to more and more development companies around the world adopting it, more how-to guides and case studies detailing its use are popping up online, and it looks like the future is here .
4. Focus on user experience
User experience, or UX, has been a buzzword for a few years now, and we’re already seeing some movement in this general direction across the industry on a larger scale. Stupid designs with a lot of similar buttons and inefficient workflows are a thing of the past – today’s users want and expect the design to be pleasant, the interface to be intuitive, the communication to be integrated into the application, and so on. A development company that doesn’t take user perception seriously is likely to shut down quickly.
5. Focus on safety
In the past, we Internet users only had to worry about viruses sent via e-mail. Don’t open suspicious emails and you’ll be fine. However, with the proliferation of mobile apps, cloud computing, open APIs, and vast amounts of personal data moving across the web, a corresponding surge in cybercrime and its variety is just as inevitable. An off-the-shelf solution won’t stop a skilled and determined hacker, so solutions that serve as countermeasures and include those countermeasures from the start are already in high demand and will become even more so in the future, seeing how deeply digital networks permeate our daily lives today.
Custom software development is a very young industry, and it’s only natural that it has to go through a lot of growing pains before it takes on any more or less stable shape – and we’re likely to see that change a lot in next years!
